An American-owned specialist marine salvage and wreck removal company Titan Salvage alongside with Italian firm Micoperi have been awarded a Costa Concordia wreck removal contract in April. Together they presented a plan to refloat and tow away the cruise ship to one of the Italian ports where she will likely be scrapped. According to Carnival Cruise the salvage plan is the world’s biggest and most complex ship salvage operation and it will cost at least 400 million euros ($525 million).

On Sept. 20, the empty 230-metre ship MV Miner was being towed by a tugboat to a Turkish scrapyard when it broke free in rough seas and ran aground on Scatarie Island, a provincial wilderness area about two kilometres from the northeast coast of Cape Breton. Initially attempts to pull the former Great Lakes freighter off the rocks failed but now new operations have been scheduled in order to remove the grounded vessel.